Bil'in Habibti - Bil'in My Love
While the U.S. media, for the most part, does not notice most of the international community does. Now a documentary has been produced on the people of Bil’in, who remain steadfast like all Palestinians. The docu is titled Bil’in Habibti {Bil’in My love).
Every Friday for the last several years, the Palestinians of Bil’in peacefully protest the expansion of the Israeli separation barrier. Israel justifies the wall as a necessary measure against Palestinian terrorism, but the wall is not built along the 1967 Green Line - the unofficial border between Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories - but expands into the Israeli-occupied West Bank and is a de facto expropriation of Palestinian land. Once complete,the Wall will encompass 8% of the West Bank on Israel’s side. In addition to the lost of land Palestinians want for their future country, Palestinian communities are divided and Palestinian farmers are denied access to their land.
And so, the people of Bil’in - often joined by international and Israeli peace activists - peacefully protest the Wall. They are often tear gassed, arrested, beaten, fired upon and some have even been killed; but the Palestinians never push back sticking steadfastly to pacifist principles. The presence of internationals and Israelis may occasionally mitigate the violence the occupying IDF employs. Recently, the IDF has been infiltrating protests posing as peace activists and then pulling out their arms and arrested unsuspecting Palestinians. Several activists have documented Palestinian non-violent resistance and violent Israeli responses in numerous home-videos that may be find via a quick Google search. Here’s one:
Israel continues to build the Wall and Palestinian demonstrators are met with brute force, but the Palestinians continue to protest and are increasingly joined by prominent figures on the international state. Canadian leftist activist Naomi Klein - of The Shock Doctrine - fame recently went to Bil’in to express her solidarity. And, The New York Times reports, that the Palestinians of Bil’in just finished hosting British billionaire and Virgin Megastore owner Richard Branson and the fmr. President of Brazil Fernando Henrique Cardoso among many others. All of them have been moved by uncompromising committee to freedom and patriotism demonstrated by Palestinians.
After several years, it appears that Israel has given in and is re-re-routing its Annex/Apartheid Wall:
Maan is reporting that “Attorney of Bil’in local council, Michael Sfard, said on Saturday that Israeli authorities informed him of the new route of the separation wall, adjusted according to a decision by the Israeli Supreme Court of Justice in 2007.” and “Once the adjusted route is implemented, residents of Bil’in are expected to restore almost half of their 2,300 donums confiscated during the construction ofthe wall ’s original route.” This sounds tome like a major triumph of nonviolent resistance, but I don’t see mention of this in Haaretz or anywhere else…
Small victories in battles eventually bequeath a glorious plenary conquest. Or in the case of the Palestinians, a glorious reconquest of their home.
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Source: http://marcovilla.instablogs.com/entry/bilin-triumphs/
